Do Mindful Breathing Exercises in the Classroom have a Positive Impact on Student Anxiety and Testing Experience?
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| Title: | Do Mindful Breathing Exercises in the Classroom have a Positive Impact on Student Anxiety and Testing Experience? |
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| Authors: | Sillevis, Rob1 rsillevis@fgcu.edu, Weiss, Valerie1, Reuter, Peter1 |
| Source: | HAPS Educator. Apr2025, Vol. 29 Issue 1, p5-14. 10p. |
| Subject Terms: | *College students, *Emotions, *Self-evaluation, *Test anxiety, Breathing exercises, Emotional state |
| Abstract: | College students report stress and anxiety when taking science courses, such as anatomy & physiology. Mindful breathing is a technique that can be used in the classroom before taking exams. To determine the impact of mindful breathing exercises on the student experience, students were randomly assigned to either course sections that included mindfulness breathing or those that did not. Both groups completed the modified twenty-question Anxiety State Self-Evaluation Questionnaire before each exam. Students in the intervention group were asked to participate in a 5-minute guided breathing exercise after completing the questionnaire, but before taking each exam. One hundred and six students (86.2%) took all four exams in the intervention group and 101 students (91.8%) in the control group. Students in the intervention group reported higher mean scores for almost all positive emotions before all four exams. The mean scores for statements describing negative emotions were generally higher for the control group than the intervention group. The guided mindful breathing intervention had no positive impact on exam performance in this study. However, the results of our study using guided mindful breathing exercises prior to taking an exam demonstrated that there was a beneficial effect on students' emotional state. Future research should explore other strategies designed to decrease test-related stress and anxiety to evaluate any potential influence on academic performance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR] |
| Copyright of HAPS Educator is the property of Human Anatomy & Physiology Society and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites without the copyright holder's express written permission. Additionally, content may not be used with any artificial intelligence tools or machine learning technologies. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.) | |
| Database: | Education Research Complete |
| FullText | Text: Availability: 0 |
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| Header | DbId: ehh DbLabel: Education Research Complete An: 186693684 AccessLevel: 6 PubType: Academic Journal PubTypeId: academicJournal PreciseRelevancyScore: 0 |
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| Items | – Name: Title Label: Title Group: Ti Data: Do Mindful Breathing Exercises in the Classroom have a Positive Impact on Student Anxiety and Testing Experience? – Name: Author Label: Authors Group: Au Data: <searchLink fieldCode="AR" term="%22Sillevis%2C+Rob%22">Sillevis, Rob</searchLink><relatesTo>1</relatesTo><i> rsillevis@fgcu.edu</i><br /><searchLink fieldCode="AR" term="%22Weiss%2C+Valerie%22">Weiss, Valerie</searchLink><relatesTo>1</relatesTo><br /><searchLink fieldCode="AR" term="%22Reuter%2C+Peter%22">Reuter, Peter</searchLink><relatesTo>1</relatesTo> – Name: TitleSource Label: Source Group: Src Data: <searchLink fieldCode="JN" term="%22HAPS+Educator%22">HAPS Educator</searchLink>. Apr2025, Vol. 29 Issue 1, p5-14. 10p. – Name: Subject Label: Subject Terms Group: Su Data: *<searchLink fieldCode="DE" term="%22College+students%22">College students</searchLink><br />*<searchLink fieldCode="DE" term="%22Emotions%22">Emotions</searchLink><br />*<searchLink fieldCode="DE" term="%22Self-evaluation%22">Self-evaluation</searchLink><br />*<searchLink fieldCode="DE" term="%22Test+anxiety%22">Test anxiety</searchLink><br /><searchLink fieldCode="DE" term="%22Breathing+exercises%22">Breathing exercises</searchLink><br /><searchLink fieldCode="DE" term="%22Emotional+state%22">Emotional state</searchLink> – Name: Abstract Label: Abstract Group: Ab Data: College students report stress and anxiety when taking science courses, such as anatomy & physiology. Mindful breathing is a technique that can be used in the classroom before taking exams. To determine the impact of mindful breathing exercises on the student experience, students were randomly assigned to either course sections that included mindfulness breathing or those that did not. Both groups completed the modified twenty-question Anxiety State Self-Evaluation Questionnaire before each exam. Students in the intervention group were asked to participate in a 5-minute guided breathing exercise after completing the questionnaire, but before taking each exam. One hundred and six students (86.2%) took all four exams in the intervention group and 101 students (91.8%) in the control group. Students in the intervention group reported higher mean scores for almost all positive emotions before all four exams. The mean scores for statements describing negative emotions were generally higher for the control group than the intervention group. The guided mindful breathing intervention had no positive impact on exam performance in this study. However, the results of our study using guided mindful breathing exercises prior to taking an exam demonstrated that there was a beneficial effect on students' emotional state. Future research should explore other strategies designed to decrease test-related stress and anxiety to evaluate any potential influence on academic performance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR] – Name: AbstractSuppliedCopyright Label: Group: Ab Data: <i>Copyright of HAPS Educator is the property of Human Anatomy & Physiology Society and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites without the copyright holder's express written permission. Additionally, content may not be used with any artificial intelligence tools or machine learning technologies. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract.</i> (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.) |
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| RecordInfo | BibRecord: BibEntity: Identifiers: – Type: doi Value: 10.21692/haps.2025.001 Languages: – Code: eng Text: English PhysicalDescription: Pagination: PageCount: 10 StartPage: 5 Subjects: – SubjectFull: College students Type: general – SubjectFull: Emotions Type: general – SubjectFull: Self-evaluation Type: general – SubjectFull: Test anxiety Type: general – SubjectFull: Breathing exercises Type: general – SubjectFull: Emotional state Type: general Titles: – TitleFull: Do Mindful Breathing Exercises in the Classroom have a Positive Impact on Student Anxiety and Testing Experience? Type: main BibRelationships: HasContributorRelationships: – PersonEntity: Name: NameFull: Sillevis, Rob – PersonEntity: Name: NameFull: Weiss, Valerie – PersonEntity: Name: NameFull: Reuter, Peter IsPartOfRelationships: – BibEntity: Dates: – D: 01 M: 04 Text: Apr2025 Type: published Y: 2025 Identifiers: – Type: issn-print Value: 24733792 Numbering: – Type: volume Value: 29 – Type: issue Value: 1 Titles: – TitleFull: HAPS Educator Type: main |
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